Sonic Beyond
by Supreme Gamesmaster Yddisac
Summary: A very bad fic. Sonic, upon being sent to another universe, must find his way home in time to stop Eggman Nega from conquering his world with the AMATIK device. His allies are formidable, but his enemies have all the power of Chaos... ScBz, ShRg, SlAm.
1. Chapter 1: It Begins

Chapter 1: It begins

(A/N: It gets better, don't worry. I suck at intros :( Oh well...)

Sonic's eyes flashed open the instant the second hand on his magnetically synchronized wristwatch struck 06:21:34. He leaped up from his not-particularly-comfortable cot, snatched up his gloves from his plain, wooden bedside table, slipped on his titanium, uber-padded, friction-resistant Power Shoes, hastily slung his watch, and glanced at the calendar in about five seconds. 

"November 19," Sonic read aloud. "'K then. Might as well start my run." The 15-year-old hedgehog blasted out the door and into the cool air of Star Light Zone. 

Sonic really enjoyed having been born with a more powerful variation of the mutagen his grandfather had initiated-that being the ability to break the sound barrier-and so, he also really enjoyed being able to show said mutagen off.

That's why he bought a home in the fastest zone he had yet visited, Star Light.

He always dashed through the zone at top speed if he woke up before 6:30, when his sister Sonia would awaken and insist that all return for a meal. Sonic didn't object, as he knew he needed a ton of energy in order to move quickly, his favored hobby, and the table was always chaotic. So come 6:30, Sonic shot back inside at 681 miles per hour, to find his siblings at the table. Sonia, his brother Manic, and his honorary brother Tails all waited in their camouflage outfits.

"What's go... oh... oh no... oh no, oh no, oh no..."

Tails calculated Sonic's horrified expression. "You forgot," he stated bluntly, "didn't you."

"Yeah..." Sonic whimpered. He had just remembered a terrible consequence of November 19. "Amy's birthday..."

Sonia spoke up. "Don't worry too much. All we'll be doing is stargazing in the main field. There's supposed to be a solar eclipse today."

"Well, I'm still worried about her glomping me." Sonic grumbled. "When're we leaving?"

"As soon as the eclipse gets into full blast," Tails stated, holding up a set of four handwritten invitations.

At 07:03:35, the total solar eclipse came into full effect. At Sonic's small Star Light abode, Sonia directed the other three to begin their  
departure.

"Manic, board. Sonic and Tails, I want you over there at 7:15. DIG?"

"Y-Yes..." Sonic gulped. Amy would be all over him if he did go, true, but he'd have the combined wrath of Amy AND Sonia if he didn't… _Just go. Your spleen will thank you._

"Alright then, and NO FUNNY BUSINESS SONIC!" Sonia boarded her lavender motorcycle and shot off, Manic and his Thermoboard Extreme Gear close behind.

Sonic and Tails arrived in the very center of the main field by 07:11:18. Sonia and Manic were waiting for them, as were Amy and her friend Cream.

"SOOONNNIIIC!!!" Amy screamed the moment the blue blur screeched to a halt. 

"YoufinallygothereIwasafraidyouwouldn'tgetherebutyoudidsothatmustmeanyoulovemewithallyourheartandsoulandwecanfinallygetmarriedandhavelikeseventytwokidsorsomethingandbeacoupleandmakeallthesonamyfansswoonandallsortsofcoolromanticstuffand--"

"SHUT UP!" Sonic yelled, clutching his head and on his knees as he desperately tried to drive his imaginings of what Amy was describing out of his head.

"You sure took your sweet time getting here," Sonia remarked. "Not that I blame you."

"She doesn't usually glomp like that," Manic muttered bluntly as Amy did a dramatic sigh/swoon. "Must be the whole birthday thing."

A gold streak appeared on the horizon. "That must be Team Dark," Tails said.

Shadow the Hedgehog, Ultimate Life Form, had tried not attending one of Amy's parties before, saying that he wasn't the social type. The next day, he had been crushed four times by Amy's flippin' huge hammer. He had dragged Rouge the Bat, a thief and seductress, and E-123 Omega, the final and most powerful destructive robot in Dr. Eggman's E-series, along ever since, saying that it was good  
for their spleens and/or internal auxiliary generators. Which it was.

Shadow, Rouge, and Omega--together they were Team Dark--skidded to a halt in front of a cowering Sonic.

"You've learned, eh?" Shadow's dark voice chiselled through the air between him and his blue look-alike.

Sonic smirked teasingly at Shadow. "Hard lesson to forget."

"I'll ignore that one. Good for my spleen." Shadow glanced over at Amy, who had woken up again and was now chatting with Cream  
a few feet away. "So where's the Praetorian Guard?"

The blue blur's emerald eyes flashed towards the gargantuan forested rock floating over their heads. "He'll be down any second now."

Sure enough, a speck of red and white floated around the flying island for a few moments, and then began approaching the ground at  
an alarming rate. Closer inspection revealed the speck to be a scarlet anthropomorphic echidna, with a streak of white across his chest and wearing white gloves over his large fists. Also prominent were two long, spiked knuckles on each fist--where the echidna had earned his name.

Knuckles burrowed into the ground on one side of Sonic and popped out the other. "What'd I miss?" the Master Emerald guardian   
inquired.

Sonic glanced over at Amy. "Nothing much," he replied. But for some reason, Knuckles was chuckling tauntingly. "What?" Sonic asked, genuinely confused. Then he turned around...

...and saw the last thing he wanted to see at that moment. Amy took a deep breath:

"OMIGODyouactuallylookedatmeintheeyesandthatmustmeanyoulovemywithallyourheartandsoullikeIloveyouwithallmyheartandsouldandnowwecangetmarriedandstuffandbutIcantthinkofseventytwonamessoyouregonnahaftahelpmewithemandbutIdontcaresowecanbelikeacoupleandstuffandmakeallthesonamyfansswoonandbeawesomelyromanticandmakeoutforlikeanhouradayand--"

"STOP!!!" Sonic screamed, now rolling around in a ball on the ground.

"Uh... maybe we had better start actually stargazing now..." Tails "I mean, that's what we're here for, right?"

Amy didn't answer.

"Well, then... wanna do presents--"

"YAYPRESENTS!" Amy answered now.

It was somewhat uneventful--Sonic actually didn't bring a present, but Amy said she didn't care because "Just your presence here is a present enough," which creeped Sonic out to no end--until they arrived at Tails' present, which was a large, powerful, technologically stable handmade telescope. Which, of course, was eerily appropriate for the occasion.

"I made it myself a while back, but I didn't have any use for it. I thought you might like it," Tails explained.

"Whoa..." Amy gazed at it in awe. Without hesitating, she raised it to her eye and gasped.

The pink hedgehog could now spectacle the Space Colony ARK in astounding detail. By that, I mean she could literally see through the windows. She scoped around for a while until she happened upon a larger screen. It was quite thick, but by playing around with the focus enough, she could see inside the giant porthole. She could barely make out what it was: a white room, large and circular, with an all-too-familiar beast within.

"I can see the Biolizard from down here!" Amy gasped, amazed. Shadow's ears perked at the mention of his beastly brother, but otherwise didn't interrupt, so Amy continued. "Thanks tons, Tails, but I think I should let Sonic se through it now. He WOULD like a try, wouldn't you, Sonikku?" She looked at him seductively.

"Uh... sure, I guess, but DON'T TOUCH ME!" Sonic warned as he gingerly lifted the telescope from Amy's hands. The moment he lifted it to his eyes, though...

_  
FLASH!_

Sonic's jaw hit the ground the moment he laid eyes on what Amy's scope allowed him to behold. The next instant, he began barking orders.

"Tails! Load up the Blue Typhoon. I'm calling Eggman. All others, prepare for battle. It seems we have a war at hand."

It was a bit odd, really. Dr. Ivo Robotnik, who preferred to be called Dr. Eggman, had been Sonic's nemesis for three years. He wanted to unite his homeworld of Earth into a lone Utopia, but no one would listen to him. Furious, he built an army of robots and summoned the Chao god, Chaos. Sonic had ended the doctor's plots, but Eggman was persistent.

Apparently, however, two years ago, when Sonic had met the enigmatic black–and–red experiment who now beheld him in confused awe, Eggman had began revising his methods of gaining Utopia. When he did turn to using peace, Eggman Nega returned, trapping the positive doctor inside of a card. Now, he was attempting to make up for his years of evil--but his unfinished return gift was on Space Colony ARK.

Tails didn't question Sonic's bizarre motives, and Amy gladly handed over her cell phone for Sonic to ring the doctor. All the others tore off, headed for Dr. Eggman's laboratory.

"Hey Eggman!" Sonic didn't bother to remove the urgency from his voice.

"Sonic? What do you want?" the doctor's voice inquired.

"Two words." The blue blur's tone was still panicked, but it seemed edgier now. "Eggman Nega."

"What the--?" Now the positive Eggman was panicking.

"The others are headed your way. Get the Egg Fleet ready. This is big."

"Affirmed. Eggman out."

"Sonic out." Sonic put the cell behind his heel and took off towards Tails' flagship.


	2. Chapter 2: Nega Skyforce

Chapter 2: Nega Skyforce Zone

"U–unbelievable! How did he get his wh–whole fleet here?!"

Sonic had witnessed the entrance of Dr. Eggman Nega's fleet, and the other good doctor was stunned. Not surprisingly—true, Eggman had built a portal and set the coordinates for the negative doctor's home, but he didn't even think it could transport a bug, let alone a war fleet as massive and magnificent as the one they now beheld. But it was still there, and it still needed to be eliminated.

"Calm down, doctor. We have the X Tornado Mk. II, after all." Shadow was visibly impressed, but he was still not fazed too much by the inevitably daunting task before them. "You could probably even fly the Eggmobile out there and survive."

"I'm just alarmed he could get his whole fleet here," Eggman explained as he overlooked the opposition. "In fact, I bet he probably only has skeleton crew… What I'm worried about is that flying missile salvo over there." The good doctor pointed at what indeed look like a black aerial missile launcher, with the term _D.I.R.E_ in gold on the sides. Especially alarming were the facts that a) the largest faces of the hexagonal prism of a space warship each had at least six dozen large concussion missiles, b) its external surface was so thick and heavily shielded that it didn't look like anything could penetrate it, and c) there was a colossal laser cannon on its front face that looked like it could take down Eggman's O.C.E.A.N battleship in one shot. "I'm sending a message to Tails. Maybe Sonic could—"

"Have you forgotten, doctor?" Shadow asked, offended. "I can do all that Sonic can."

"No, I have other plans for you," Eggman said, his tone cryptic.

"What is it, Eggman?" Tails' voice requested, interrupting Shadow's briefing.

"I want Sonic to take on that Nega D.I.R.E vessel. Looks like a flying missile launcher—"

"Sure thing, Doc!" Sonic's voice interrupted. "So long as Tails can take me over."

"I can do that, Sonic. Just get in the Tornado," Tails instructed.

"Eggman out," the good doctor finalized.

••••••••••••••••••••••••

"Sonic, I can't get any closer to the D.I.R.E, or it'd gun us back down to planetside," Tails murmured nervously. "Try taking those weapons platforms down."

"Sure thing, lil' bro!" Sonic confirmed as he leaped out of the X Tornado Mk. II and onto the first weapons platform.

Three black cannons were firing out of gold barrels, each manned by black–and–gold versions of Egg Pawns. Sonic obliterated both the cannons and the Nega Pawns in the span of a few seconds. Collecting five–ring item boxes from each of the cannon ruins, Sonic hopped onto a nearby grind rail. As he ground along the numerous rails, defeating robots along the way, a strange thought popped into his head.

If Eggman Nega's here… then it'll only be a matter of time until-- 

His thoughts were interrupted as he hit a spring at the end of a grind rail, sending him hurtling into the cargo hold of one of the negative doctor's fuel ships. There was little light—not that that was much different from the rest of space—and the hold was tiny, like the rest of the vessel, but Sonic could see into the nav room, where a robot was looking at a screen. Said screen had a bunch of small technical gibberish that Sonic couldn't make out, but clearly visible was the text:

Destination: Direct Imperial Rebel Eradicator

_The D.I.R.E,_ Sonic thought to himself. _Victory, thy name is spring._

The unmistakable sound of a large hatch being opened was soon heard, and further darkness overtook the fuel ship. Within seconds, a black Nega Pawn Mk. II pulled down the ramp leading to the cargo hold. The pawn was history.

Sonic shot around the silver hangar and into a pulley-like hook, which lifted him up and onto another level of the space dock. Darting through three inactive pistons, Sonic took another winch up and out of the hangar.

_Daunting,_ Sonic thought as he took in the weapons deck.

Several periscopes were on the brown ceiling and floor, each one manned. Just three Nega Pawn Mk. VIIIs patrolled each mahogany wall, but seventy-four targeting computers were mounted on two of said walls. Seventy–four targeting computers each, that is. _They must be for the missiles, _Sonic thought to himself.

Naturally, there was a network of catwalks that led around the massive warship, and Sonic was now facing one of said catwalks. Launching off of the silver hook, Sonic landed on the catwalk in front of him. Hurtling around it, he had grabbed another winch when he heard the sound.

The very menacing sound.

The siren.

_Whooeeooeeooeeooeeooeeooeeooeeooeeoo_ resounded throughout the weapons deck. The Nega Pawn Mk. VIIIs all cocked their blasters, and as the deck security steadily cranked to life, Sonic realized that it had been very still before this. Not hesitating, Sonic jumped off the winch and onto the second level...

...and watched annoyedly as parts of the catwalk crumbled around him.

_Great, another one of these platforming bits,_ Sonic thought. _Ah well... here we go..._

Sonic cautiously leapt into the ring that hovered over one gap, and immediately jumpdashed forward into two other rings and onto one of the stable bits of catwalk.

Or at least, one of the I-thought-it-was-stable bits. But a familiar shaking alerted Sonic to the fact that the catwalk bit was going to crumble soon.

Not wanting to return to the first level, and knowing full well that said level could give out under him, thus killing him when he hit the hangar floor, the cobalt speedster glanced around, searching for a way out in relative panic. Five golden rings floating in the air were all that Sonic needed. Soaring through the air, Sonic whipped into a ball just as the rings seemed to approach him. His Power Shoes did the rest, zapping him through the ring line faster than an average human could blink.

He didn't hesitate to jumpdash into a railing on a stable--and this bit was, in fact, stable--corner of a fairly long piece of catwalk. The blue blur ground unsteadily for a few moments, and then jumped off onto the catwalk, immediately leaping back up into the air. Realizing that nothing had happened, Sonic jumpdashed forwards, not realizing that he would meet another winch until he felt himself steadily rising. He didn't raise any complaints.

_Third level, with 23 rings,_ Sonic thought as he rose up on the winch. _How many levels are there, anyway? _The hedgie craned his neck to see. _I'll need to get to the fifth level, eh? Crap... I was hoping for something easy. The sooner I beat that doctor into an unrecognizable blob of negative yolk, the better._

A loud _BLAM_ interrupted our hero's thoughts as a black-and-gold piston crashed down from the ceiling and forced part of the catwalk to fall away.

_I guess I'll just have to hurry,_ Sonic thought to himself as he flung himself onto the catwalk.

_BLAM!_ The piston crashed down again the instant Sonic landed. The cobalt wonder of Mobius yelped in surprise as the ground right in front of him fell away.

_I'm REALLY gonna have to hurry, aren't I?_ Sonic thought to himself as he jumpdashed onto the bit of catwalk that remained after the piston attacks. As he heard another _BLAM_ behind him, the hedgehog didn't bother to watch the catwalk behind his original position fall to the second level.

_So it's a pattern, eh?_ Sonic realized. _But that means that I'm next!_

The hedgie's epiphany didn't go without action following its theme, as Sonic revved up into a spindash...

_BLAM_ and _Fssew_ resounded side-by-side as Sonic released his spindash, just as the piston blew that catwalk piece he was on back down to the second level of the hangar. The blue blur wasn't idle as he snatched the hook on the third level's winch. _Fourth level, 23 rings,_ Sonic thought. _What platforming surprise does that negative bastard have for me now?_

Much to Sonic's pleasant surprise, all that awaited him on the last level of the D.I.R.E. weapons deck before the turbolaser he would have to shut down were six of Eggman Nega's Nega Pawn Mk. VIIIs. Sonic did away with them in a few seconds.

"PLEASE tell me you've upgraded your robot designs, Neg," Sonic said aloud as he rode the winch up to the fifth level, which, much to Sonic's surprise, was a hexagonal platform. "This is gonna be boring if I have to keep trashing these cheap filmmakers."

Much to Sonic's horror, the negative doctor seemed to respond to his taunt. The six remaining robots were all alerted to the threat, and in response, they all disassembled themselves. Sonic would have laughed out loud had he not seen their parts reconfiguring. He waited to see what the result of the parts would be.

The 'result' was a large, bug-like robot in black and gold, at least twice Sonic's height. It's head looked like a sideways obsidian teardrop, with gold streaks on the top and bottom. It had the twelve photoreceptors from the normal robots, and it unnerved Sonic to think of how well it would be able to sense his movements. Two half-teardrops, with gold lining on their tops, served as horns. Underneath that, a column of spare gears, as cliché as that sounded, served as a neck. Its body was a column, also, made of two bodies from the Nega Pawn Mk. VIIIs, complete with the black-and-gold color schemes. It had thick black legs, and its arms were just as thick, with gold elbowcaps. Three laser cannons were mounted on each arm, and Sonic could guess that they were pretty powerful, with a good firing rate. On its back were two other Nega Pawn Mk. VIII bodies, each one spouting fire.

Apparently, the bug-bot had kept its vocoders, for it warned in a metallic voice:

"N-101 Beta battle mode initiate. Target: Not Present."

Sonic relaxed a little and started towards the turbolaser.

"Action: Eliminate all life forms present."

"Gimme a break!" Sonic complained. "You destructive robots are always after me. And the N-Series! Who'll be next? Stalker N-100 Alpha? Traitor N-102 Gamma? Disgruntled guard N-123 Omega? The N-Series! How unoriginal do you get?" (insert Crush 'Em All from SA2 if you want)

Sonic tried a homing attack on N-101, but the mantis-thing fired at him in mid-homing attack. As the cobalt wonder scrambled for his rings, the mantis-thing flew up to the ceiling and decided to rain blaster bolts down on Sonic. Fortunately, Sonic was able to dash around them, but he decided to try something a little daring and go for the turbolaser, and as he did, N-101 rammed into him. Cursing in frustration, Sonic collected 12 rings before he decided to try a different tactic.

As N-101 lowered, Sonic whipped around in circles as fast as his legs would take him, which, as one would imagine, was pretty damn fast. The robot caught on, though, and fired its laser continuously in Sonic's path. Unable to brake, Sonic ran straight into N-101's attack.

Collecting nine rings, Sonic watched annoyedly as his opponent took to the skies again. "You wanna come down here and fight, bug? All I can eat with you up there is your dignity!"

The N-series robot seemed to glare at the hedgehog down below. This wasn't the calculated response! Analyzing the electron signals it had picked up, it made out its target's taunt.

"Why don't you eat my lasers, then?' the bot requested.

Sonic dodged every one.

N-101 was furious now. Target deviates from standard reactions in most instances. Expanding attack databanks. Target set: all. Target weakness: unknown/none. Options: •fire all weapons •activate all security measures •eliminate arena Select: •eliminate arena Action: eliminate arena

The negative mantis descended, aiming its weaponry at the ground beneath it, jets flaming furiously.

_Jets..._ Sonic thought. _That's it! It's perfect! I'll need damn good timing, though. Let's hope I still have it in me!_

N-101 Beta had shot a hole in the arena around itself already when it realized that the target had disappeared from all of its photoreception. It didn't even have time to activate its radar before its jets were knocked off its back. Alert! Major damage in sections five and six. Damage currently at 76.385. Status: Critical. Jet boosters no longer present. Fatal Error! Cannot sustain aerial status... Those were the last processings of N-101 Beta Mk. I, as immediately afterwards, it hit the hangar floor with a _CRASH _sound (not a _CRASH_ onomatopoeia).

Sonic had sliced through five different-colored power supplies before the unmistakable sound of _whooeeooeeooeeooeeooeeooeeooeeooeeooeeoo_ cut through the air. Before Sonic could react, he had been sucked into the turbolaser and fired out in a tiny escape pod towards Space Colony ARK.

The blue blur could still make out the crimson maelstrom of Chaos energy inside the spherical domain.

---------------End Chapter 2: Nega Skyforce Zone---------------

A/N: So, yeah, you don't have to review, it'd just be nice... REALLY nice.

If you do, please leave a rating out of 10 and where I could improve, as well as what you liked, if there IS anything you liked (unlikely). Oh, and be nice. It gets better. Next zone is ARK Warbase Zone, BTW.


	3. Chapter 3: ARK Warbase

Chapter 3: ARK Warbase Zone

A dark figure, visible only by his vivid hazel eyes and gold tailband, was on a black wall of a circular coliseum. Said eyes were staring out upon a menacing foundry where a familiar type of robot was being created in full view. Thunderous _BANG_s, _kzzat_s, and a few _wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee_s clogged the air with the sinister feel of a twisted factory, which was exactly what the arena was.

The figure--revealed to be a dark grey gila monster by a passing searchlight--gazed upon all of this worriedly.

"This is what he's doing to Geoccira?" he whispered, frightened. "So this is where all those robots come from..."

The Gila monster trembled for a second, but then squared his shoulders and leaped into the ring.

----------------------

Shadow had just finished blowing 11 Nega Pawn Mk. IIIs into smithereens with his Chaos Blast power when a rocket burst through the Plexiglas porthole of Space Colony ARK. I know, destructive sentence.

"You got here quickly," Shadow remarked as a certain blue hedgehog started dashing away from the window.

"No time! Just get away!" Sonic ordered desperately as the vacuum of space took its toll on the inside of the spherical colony.

Shadow realized what was going on quickly enough to start up his Air Shoes and fight his body's automatic rush to fill the absence of matter that was outer space. As the two supersonic hedgehogs tore away from the vacuum, collecting five more rings as they attempted to fight the laws of physics, Shadow shared some data as to where they were on ARK.

"The negative doctor's turned this place into his own private Death Star," the black-and-red anthro began, "so I don't know what challenges lie ahead. On the other hand, we're pretty close to where the negative doctor and whatever it is he used to get here are, so we're pretty good for position. Not too far to go, I hope."

"Whaddaya mean, I hope?!" Sonic demanded incredulously.

Not too far ahead, Sonic and Shadow came upon a familiar-looking challenge: a series of platforms suspended over acid. Sonic was about to jump ahead when Shadow motioned for him to stop.

"Wait a sec," he murmured, his voice troubled as he stared at some very unfamiliar challenges. It's a good thing Sonic obeyed his warning.

Six black tack-like objects hovered near the platforms. Their points were deadly, and the heads were emitting blue gas. These tacks would hover for a while, drawing back, until they reached the wall, where a set of sparks were constantly burning. Evidently, the blue gas was flammable, because as soon as the gas touched the sparks, the tacks would fling themselves forward, burying themselves in the opposite wall. Much of the wall had been destroyed because of it, and if Sonic had simply jumped ahead, he would have to hang there, pinned to the wall, until the tacks eventually gave out and Sonic would meet his acidic end. Worse yet, there was a GUN Lift corridor and terminal, but the Lift had clearly been torn out, leaving no way through the corridor but on the limited number of platforms.

"...wow," Sonic muttered, awed at the new genius the negative doctor was displaying. "Thanks for warning me..."

"Dun mention it..." Shadow murmured, barely aware that Sonic was speaking to him in shock of what Eggman Nega was doing to his home.

Because Shadow had been created on Space Colony ARK, Sonic was the first to recover and explode over four platforms before he stopped, waiting for Shadow to follow. The ultimate did so quickly, and both of them hurtled over onto a fifth floating walkway, evading one of the tacks just in time.

This particular platform was a moving one, and all of the tacks had vanished early in the ride. Not falling for the smooth sailing ploy, Sonic and Shadow both tensed for whatever challenge awaited them after the metal block stopped moving.

They were right in thinking that it was a dangerous flight: the platform crashed into another one and, in a few moments, both chunks of floating iron had begun plummeting towards the acid that waited below. The supersonic hedgehogs, however, were more prepared than Eggman Nega had hoped and were able to bound across both collapsing platforms with astounding speed and precision before coming to a screeching halt in order to allow themselves to land on another moving platform. This particular chunk shot out horizontally, smashing into a piece of stable, not-floating floor, marking the boundaries of the waste lock. As the hedgies had predicted, however, a large chunk of the floor was broken off, and no one had ever argued with gravity. However, the supersonic anthros had challenged the authority of inertia on multiple occasions, and they were able to shoot into the wall--hurt slightly, but overall safe from harm.

"Where to now?" Sonic asked, exhausted.

"I think... ah, damn." The Ultimate Life Form appeared exasperated suddenly.

"...What do you mean, Shadow?" The cobalt speedster was starting to get tired of the ARK.

"I mean that there's no way out of here!"

"WHAT?!"

"The lift has been... hey, wait."

"Hm?" Sonic questioned hopefully.

"Where'd that come from?" Shadow was pointing to a vacuum tube that had actively sucked out some panels from the wall and was now randomly forcing matter to fill the not-space inside.

"I don't care," Sonic said gleefully, already running towards the vacuum.

----------------------

The Gila monster was sprinting along a conveyor belt; however, he wasn't going too quickly, as any faster would have been beyond his physical limits. Whenever one of the lethal welding points came near him, he wrenched it off its base, and, fortunately, there were no crushers. Multiple times, he had to avoid groping robot arms that were attempting to throw him onto a passing robot frame.

But this was just the beginning, and the lizard knew exactly what and where the worst of it was.

When the Gila monster reached the end of the last conveyor, he jumped off and landed not so gracefully, drawing hard rocks out of deep in the ground.

"'Ey! I know you're here, Nega!" The lizard seemed certain that the negative doctor would show up. Much to his surprise, a mere hologram appeared in front of him. The holographic Nega began to speak:

"I'm afraid I've taken an extended leave of absence to deal with a few old enemies. I didn't want you to be disappointed with your endeavour, though, so I did leave my dear little program in charge of affairs here. Have fun with Neorb, Cortex--the darling most certainly needs it."

Sure enough, a circular hole in the brass floor twisted open, and the corrupted data sphere overtook the very room.

Cortex would be hard pressed to get rid of it.

----------------------

Sonic and Shadow had found the real negative doctor at long last. Eggman Nega was not pleased.

"Ah, drat," he said, annoyed, when he saw the two hedgehogs approaching. He had been busy rewiring the ARK Control East and had just finished when he caught sight of the supersonic anthros. "I had rather hoped the containment hatch hadn't given out quite so much. Oh, well, at least I get to play with them... and they should rather enjoy my new toy!"

Tapping a button on his control panel, the Negamobile floated down from the sky in all its black, red, and gold glory. Hopping in, he piloted the flying sphere, based on the false Eggmobiles Neo Metal Sonic had produced for his Overlord plot, up to a capsule at the top of a gigantic, monochromatic statue of himself.

The statue was colossal, easily 10 times as big as the hedgehogs. The head was white, with black cannons as eyes just below the cockpit, which was bordered in black and designed to look like the negative doctor's goggles. Behind the white moustache were two handles connected to a metal plate. Inside this rectangular slab were nine missiles, arranged into a three-by-three array. The statue's vest was black, as were the sleeves. On one arm, a long white blade about 11 feet long extended from a white cuff. On the other side, an imposing 17-spike drill, similar to the one on the original Annihilator, was ready to instantly eliminate anything in its way. Its jumpsuit was white, and had a black stripe going down the stomach. Also, back on its head, a permanent evil smirk was frozen on the evil robot's face.

Lowering the Negamobile into the cockpit, the negative doctor strapped on a set of PLNRs--Physical Link Neuroreceptors--like a silver ribcage. He flicked a switch, and a green light blinked, indicating vocal command would be received. The negative doctor chuckled evilly, as all evil geniuses do as they unleash their plots, and said simply:

"Activate N-0V14 Nega Annihilator."

The Negamobile's dashboard lit up green, and a metallic voice stated: "Initiating Nega Annihilator program. Please remain alert at all times and prepare ejection capsule."

"I really don't know why I installed that warning," Eggman Nega mused. "I suppose it's for the best, though."

Acid-green lights slowly and methodically illuminated the statue's arms, legs, and chest. The metallic voice informed the negative doctor when each body part had activated:

"N-0V14 Sector A active."..."N-0V14 Sector B active."..."N-0V14 Sector C active."..."N-0V14 Sector D active."..."N-V014 Sector E active."

The negative doctor smirked. Hopefully, this machine would crush the hedgehogs. If not, he could at least have some fun--and get rid of enough of Sonic's tension so he couldn't use the Special Stage Generator he had used to get to the world he was currently on. It had been a royal pain to get the Annihilator over to Mobius, and he wasn't going to let his efforts go to waste.

The negative doctor ordered: "Prime N-0V14 neurolinked battle mode. Prepare for conflict."

----------------------

Sonic and Shadow were in relatively high spirits after having been shot out of the vacuum tube. As it turned out, not much more remained, and all that was left to do was dodge haphazardly bouncing tacks between walls, and to roll under sudden spurts of acid. After riding a rocket up through a goal ring and onto the surface of ARK, the supersonic hedgehogs waited for something to happen. They weren't actually expecting the monochromatic, glowing green Eggman Nega robot that rose up from Direct Storage E1.

"That's our next boss fight, eh?" Sonic mused. "Lemme guess: Nega Annihilator."

"Bravo. You should go to Jeopardy. You're good at guessing games." Eggman Nega was not amused.

"Nah, I like blowing your machines up too much. Sonic pointed as he and Shadow lunged into conflict. (insert music Shadow from Sonic X if you want)

----------------------

The Nega Annihilator instantly began backing up along the surface of ARK, but Sonic and Shadow gave vicious chase. The hedgies were about to break the sound barrier when Shadow's observance saved the duo again.

"Watch for those tacks!" the black-and-red anthro warned urgently. Sure enough, six more tack-like objects surrounded the Annihilator. If the two tried to break the sound barrier, the tacks would impale them, forcing them to lose all of their rings.

"Let's just keep this pace," Sonic called, waiting with his ears alert for any battle cries.

One soon came. "Take this!" Eggman Nega yelled. The robot's left arm reared back, and its white hand retracted, so not even its black fingers were visible. The arm's green glow became red, and a long, white blade extended from the empty wrist socket.

"Watch it!" Sonic warned, and the two hedgehogs swerved out of the way as the knife sliced down between them. Suddenly, Shadow's memory jolted.

The berserk Biolizard, on a round arena, with two rectangular flowing sand currents...

_The pipe, extending out of its mouth, set to grind up to the life support..._

"Grind the blade!" Shadow yelled. "It'll take us straight up to the cockpit!"

"Will do," Sonic affirmed as he already began to grind up the sword.

----------------------

_This is why I hate hedgehogs so much,_ the negative doctor thought, gritting his teeth. _They're so hard to get rid of._ He heaved his arm back, yelling in frustration, and the neurolinks he had installed took effect. Whenever he made a movement, the robot would, too.

----------------------

"Whoa!" Sonic yelled as the blade became vertical, destroying his balance. If he had his Light Shoes, he'd be able to grind the blade even if it were upside-down. But, of course, he wasn't wearing his Light shoes.

As he fell haphazardly towards the cockpit, he got an idea. His watch doubled as a Bounce Bracelet, after all! He rolled up in a ball as he fell and braced himself to the shattering glass.

----------------------

Eggman Nega wasn't expecting Sonic's cunning and quick thinking, and he cried out in surprise as the cobalt wonder smashed through the Plexiglas cockpit windshield. Furious, he attempted to grab and strangle the hedgehog, inadvertently causing his drill to activate and plunge towards Shadow.

----------------------

Shadow was really shocked when the drill kept coming towards him. Wasn't the robot supposed to explode when the cockpit was broken?

But the Ultimate Life Form didn't come without fast reflexes. "Chaos Control!" he yelled, and time skidded to a halt around him. Staring at the drill in front of him, Shadow got a brilliant idea.

As he swiftly and elegantly slipped in the cockpit and time returned to normal, something caught Shadow's eye.

"Sonic! Get the Special Stage Generator!"

Sonic was shooting through the peragrodimensional rift in a flash.

----------------------

Eggman Nega was even angrier now. "Deactivate neuroreceptors!" he barked. The Negamobile quickly obeyed, and in time that would even make his prey impressed, the negative doctor was upon Shadow.

"Do you realize what you've done?" he demanded imperiously. "Now, not only can I not bring the rest of my fleet, your friend Sonic is trapped in another world! I don't know where the thing sent him, but that was no Special Generator."

Shadow realized what he was talking about, so just before he Chaos Controlled away, he murmured:

"That was a Chronospatial Penetrator? What have I done?"

----------------------End Chapter----------------------

A/N: Long chapter plus Writer's Block equals Slow Update. It took me a long time to figure out how to properly capture the defilation of ARK and how long the Annihilator fight would be. And speaking of the Annihilator, expect to see more: the evil robot's still intact, in case you can't remember. Stone City's the next zone.


	4. Chapter 4: Stone City

Chapter 4: Stone City

Sonic was understandably alarmed when he emerged from the Special Stage. The moment he realized what was happening, he was falling a loooong way down to a ground of cold, hard stone. Not knowing what else to do, he whipped himself into a ball and braced for impact.

The ground was surprisingly malleable, and Sonic was able to burrow down several feet before he hit a tunnel. Smashing through the ceilling, he hit the ground hard.

"Unnh..." Sonic moaned in pain. "Thiz isn' where I zdarded..." Glancing around, he got his bearings, and immediately decided that he didn't like the odds of his situation.

A dozen miners, consisting of armadillos and rats, and armed with shovels, drills, and explosives, were all bearing down on him furiously. The blue blur had apparently come very close to collapsing the mine, injuring all of them. Naturally, they thought that he had done it on purpose.

"I gotta get outta here!" Sonic yelled in panic before he took off through the mines.

-------------------------

Cortex watched, unamused, as the bronze assembly around him proudly displayed its viral arsenal. A colossal variety of wicked assembly devices, such as pounding crushers, a vile furnace, and numerous welding torches, were all creaking to life before him.

"Suurre..." he muttered annoyedly as Neorb continued showing off. "I get the point. Ya gotta lotta stuff. Can we just fight now?"

A green light suddenly carved out an answer in the brass wall: _If you want to hurry your demise, please be my guest._

The Gila monster's expression quickly became fearful as a gigantic piston smashed the floor in front of him down several meters. A hideous _CLANG_ resounded from down below, while the piston _whirrrrrr_ed back into its place. These ominous sounds were soon followed by a metallic _THUD_. "I take my request back!" Cortex yelled, frightened. Yet, the lizard knew his reply, even as the giant cannon rose out of the ground, _ksssssssshhh_ing pneumatically.

_Too late_.

-------------------------

Sonic was careening around the unstable mines wildly, a bit fearful for his life, at about the same time Cortex was facing the Neorb's Nega Disassembly Line over at the foundry. Let's check on him now, shall we?

The cobalt wonder screeched to a stop as he neared a steep cliff. He stopped just in time, too, as the cliff's edge gave way and tumbled down the dark soil, landing in some sort of abyss that Sonic very much didn't want to get to know the bottom of. "Looks like this place was bad enough _before_ I came and screwed things," Sonic noted, surveying his surroundings.

If he was going to get away from the crazed mob of disgruntled workers, he would have to make it over the chasm. A steel truss led over part of it, but bits and pieces of it were snapped, shattered, and entirely absent. That, and the fact that about 1/3 of the way across, the truss stopped dead. Luckily, the jagged wall had several crystalline protrusions, indicating the miners' success, and parts of the truss were still up. _A classic platforming challenge,_ Sonic thought, smirking. _Does this ever change?_

The roar of the miners behind him reminded Sonic that things did, in fact, change, though possibly not too much. _And anyway,_ he thought, wryly amused, _no one's ever bothered to put the platforms at different widths, different compositions, and the various et cetera_. The blue blur quickly gauged the required angles, and quickly decided. _Here goes!_

Sonic dashed forth onto the truss at about 312 mph, grimly observing the truss falling behind him. _No time to worry about it now, _he managed to think before leaping off the truss at a sharp 87º. _Just a little further, and…_

"Yes!" Sonic yelled aloud as he sprang off a cluster of beryl. Everything was going perfectly--better, even, than our hero could have expected. He hadn't been counting on the truss's fragility, but that made it all the better--after all, even a geokineser probably couldn't reach into that abyss. _Geokineser…_ The blue blur thought of that as he roared through the long, winding passageways.

Sonic's speed was normal, a phrase which here means '453 miles per hour,' and his choices were all correct in the mad labyrinth, save once, so it was only a few seconds later that he emerged to the spearpoint of an armored rat.

"You, sir," the rat proclaimed, "are under arrest for sorcery!"

-------------------------

Sonic's confusion was infinite as he was dragged forcibly to a stone prison underground. He could break out easily, but he didn't want to hurt anyone in a universe he'd just entered, due to the fact that he'd be treated as a terrorist, for a purely selfish reason, and his own ethics. But he drew the line when he was tossed into a cell with a magma vent in it. The hedgie had a plan, but it was incredibly complex.

The moment the rat disappeared, Sonic threw his quills to 'Epsilon Grade,' 7.43 hardness on the Mohs scale, and sliced through the rocks as though they weren't there. I know, I lied.

"...that's cheating... so _why_ didn't _I_ think of it?" a high-ish, impressed voice demanded of himself. "Riight..." the voice corrected itself. "I'm slow."

"...Uh," Sonic began speaking to the dark-grey Gila monster in the cell that he'd only just realized existed.

"Cortex Dulkannir," the lizard introduced himself. "Geokineser from V'Noi. Got caught on my way back from Nega's--"

"Nega?!" Sonic nearly yelled, careful not to wake anything.

"Yeah... Why? You know him?" Cortex seemed a tad too casual about the 'scientist' who had actually come close to annihilating me (reality).

"Know him?" Sonic demanded in a harsh whisper, so as to evade detection. "_Know_ him?! I was the one who stopped him from destroying ol Xyvarxyd!"

"Ol... Zee...var...ksid?" the geokineser questioned, confused. When Sonic didn't answer, he continued. "Anyway, I was fighting Nega's Neorb, which in itself had taken over a factory I was going to destroy. A blew it up, and then, these armored rats came over with spears and said I was to be arrested for sorcery!"

"Same here," the blue blur admitted. "I get a Chaos Emerald--"

"Chaos Emerald?!" It was Cortex's turn to control his voice. Unfortunately, he wasn't so good...

A pair of rats wearing red helmets (that, incidentally, they obviously couldn't see out of) came barging into the cell block. "Lizard!" they yelled at a bewildered Cortex. "Come with us!" Despite their blindness, they still had giant axes, and thus, they were still a threat.

"Go ahead," Sonic suggested. "This could be entertaining..."

-------------------------

Eggman Nega was on ARK around now, scheming to obtain the Chaos Emeralds. Why scheme for the Chaos Emeralds, excluding reasons like omnipotence/world domination/apocalypse/other villainous things/world peace/end of world hung... oh, never mind, I've got a good enough reason anyway.

"Why ought I steal the emeralds this time?" Nega had asked himself. "Omnipotence is getting old. So is world domination, and apocalypse, and anarchy, and conjuring hordes of undead minions, and World W--I've got it!" See? Told you. "I'll use the emeralds to get my fleet back from Parax, and then subjugate both worlds! But... why do I feel I just reinforced reality's point on something trivial, like breaking clichés and such...?"

Damn. He's good.

-------------------------

"Hedgehog!" the same rats yelled, barging into the cells again. "Come with us!"

"I'm already in the arena. Don't waste your breath!" Sonic's voice answered as the rats were sent sailing through several walls by one of the blue blur's kicks.

The hedgie turned to an elderly, better-armored warrior rat. "Whaddaya want, Falalalala?"

"Fadaladu-dal!" the rat bit back sharply. "You will pay for your insolence, sorcerer. I was going to take you in combat myself, but I see your cheek knows no bounds, and so I shall pit you up against a golem that my prisoner shaman here," he stopped, pointing at a bound-and-gagged Cortex, "was kind enough to summon for me."

"A golem!" Sonic retorted sarcastically. "The last golem I faced was _cake_. If this one's just as easy, your reputation'll be annihilated in _two seconds flat_."

"We will see," Fadaladu-dal snarled back, and then retreated, muttering, "You'd think the _high elder_ would get some respect..." His voice was quickly drowned out by an omnious rumbling that echoed all around the white-and-red dome of rock.

"Well, now. This could be entertaining," Sonic smirked, prepping for combat as the golem rose out of the ground.

First came a gigantic rock, almost trapezoidal. Sandy-orange and craggy, the stone had apparently been ripped away with relative force, as its jagged edges evidenced. The boulder also, incidentally, had a nearly circular design carved very deeply, down past the rock's center and nearly all the way through.

Quickly following the giant body of the golem came the arms. First, they were a dozen smaller rocks, each about as big as Sonic. However, each chunk picked itself up off the ground and linked itself to another, forming two chains of six sandy boulders each. Each chain then attached itself to the original rock.

Two stones, as big as the ones from the arms, then shot out of the floor as though they had been launched from a cannon. Their target had been the underside of the initial boulder, and the only way Sonic could tell they had ever been there was through the fact that said boulder was sent upwards from the force of the shot. Two more stones launched upwards, and voilà, the legs, and thus the golem, were complete.

"Good luck, Sonic the Hedgehog," Fadaladu-dal snarled. Cortex, his power drained, could do nothing but watch as his new friend did battle with this abomination. (insert music Metallic Madness-Present from Sonic CD here if you want)

_Let's see... How do I hurt this da--_ The cobalt hedgie's train of thought was lost as quickly as Sonic could run backwards as a loud, foghorn-like sound emanated from the golem's general area. The golem's challenger immediately tensed as the arms shot upwards and into the top of the white rock dome, sending chunks of stone cascading down all over the arena. Dodging around the debris, Sonic returned his gaze to the golem, just in time to see it smash its arms into the ground and lift itself up, its short legs too small to stay on the ground. _It's gonna body slam me!_ Sonic realized in time to dash around the bestial chunk of crust as it hit the floor.

Something most curious happened when the golem slammed the ground, and I'm not talking about the earth shaking. A stalagmite started forming in the boss's back, and suddenly, something clicked in Sonic's mind.

As the stone monstrosity picked itself up off the floor and continued attempting to maul our hero, Sonic started wondering about how to defeat his new enemy. _I get it now,_ he rapidly decided as he evaded a sharp bit of debris landing near him. _That circle was really just a second rock that's a sort of support structure for the golem. If I get--_he stopped for a moment to dodge a deadly punch from his foe--_that rock out of it--_another stop to avoid the second strike--_it'll lose its balance and topple! But how--_

The hedgehog didn't have much time to anticipate the following events, and it's not like he would have been able to guess what was about to happen, anyway. The shards of debris from the monster's initial offensive maneuver actually levitated off the ground, motivated by the golem. Each shard then started whirling around, forming a spinning circle of sharp debris.

Sonic did, however, anticipate the whirling dervish's offensive maneuver. He had found time to calculate exactly what to do in the event's occurrence, and immediately sprang into action as soon as the wreckage began to near him.

The hedgie sprang into the air, flying over the spinning shards of ceiling. Almost immediately, he whipped into a ball and flew around in the air, following exactly the debris whirlwind. Fully aware of Fadaladu-dal's astonishment, Sonic mentally smirked as the blue tornado whipped ever closer to the stone abomination.

_Ktfffffffff!_

The support was halfway through now, and Sonic was standing in the cavity, smirking defiantly at the rat elder, who looked on in confusion and rage. The blue blur's moment of triumph was cut short, however, at the sound of yet another foghorn.

It was going to be a simple attack this time. The golem had decided to squash Sonic like a bug while he was trapped in the cavity. Our hero could had noticed this, and already, he was thinking up a way out.

"Old and simple, but..." Sonic finally decided as the giant rock fist neared the cavity.

As the stone hand was about to reach the opening, the cobalt speedster leaped up and landed on the wall. He then sprang off the wall, forming another blue tornado and landing on the platform from which Cortex and Fadaladu-dal watched.

Sonic was a bit surprised at his own deed, however. The golem's force was such that it had sent its own support flying. The conical boulder was sent quite a distance through the air before cutting into the pliable ground and skidding to a stop. The deanimated boulder then crumbled, each piece making a distinct impression in the ground. Interestingly enough, the fist that had punched the support rock away bounced off the ground a couple of times, before smashing through the platform, and, incidentally, crushing Fadaladu-dal. Sonic, not wasting any time, cut his new friend free, snatched his arm up, and darted out of the dome.

-------------------------

A/N: I had intended to release this yesterday, but I had to go to a barbeque and thus had no time to download and release. Also, I had no motivation to get the chapter done, since nothing important happens. To avoid another breakdown like this, I've decided to _put both Shadouge and Silvamy in the next chapter_. I know, joy to the world. I'll need many more nice reviews though...


	5. Chapter 5: Light Keeper

Chapter 5: Light Keeper Zone

A/N: I had to go to a composers convention, so thanks to my brother for posting the last chapter. Before we start, I'd like to announce that _THERE WILL BE SILVAMY IN THIS CHAPTER_, coupled with (see how I used that worplay?) _LOADS OF SONAMY BASHING_. Apologies to all Shadouge fans, but in order to keep this chapter at a reasonable length, I had to cut any Shadouge, and besides, the chapter template wouldn't let me squeeze it in. Don't worry, there's still the Possessed Brain chapters.

A/N: As I said earlier, I had to go to a composers convention, and my brother had to post Stone City. Well, I had to give him my password, obviously. Now, it has come to my attention that my brother has been using my account to submit threatening and offensive reviews. If you see any review that was posted, either under my account or anonymously as 'Supreme Gamesmaster Yddisac' OR 'WormholeAzuxes' between June 23rd and July 1st, please know that IT IS NOT FROM ME and that I DO NOT MEAN ANY OF IT. Many apologies to any who have received such reviews from my account, particularly Rikku McClowFox, who is one of my few reviewers and the one who alerted me to this outrageous behavior. I have only been notified of four such instances, three signed and one anonymous, so if you have received any reviews from between June 23rd and July 1st, PLEASE NOTIFY ME ASAP so I can attempt to find some way to recitify his error. I'm afraid I don't have any method of compensation, but I do have my ways of ensuring that it won't happen again...

----------------------

Sonic started tearing out of L'Noi, dragging Cortex by the arm, before anyone had a chance to recover from the golem's flashy defeat. While blasting out of the city, Cortex decided to speak up.

"WWee sshhooouulldd ggoo ttooooo VV'NNooiii nneexxtt," he managed out. "TThheeeeeyyy sshhooooooooouuuuulldd­--" this was particularly elongated due to Sonic's sudden curve. "kknnoooww hhoooww ttoooo ggeett yyooouu oouutt ooff hheerrree."

"Gotcha!" Sonic replied rapidly, much to Cortex's astonishment. "Where from here?"

"WWeesstt," Cortex spat out, not wanting to throw up.

----------------------

The black, spider-like mecha expertly scaled a turret-lined wall on Space Colony ARK. Nega hadn't put them there--if he had, he could have simply forced them to disarm--but apparently, Professor Gerald was smart enough to not even let himself control the laser cannons, in fear that others might learn his methods of override. So, the mad scientist had been forced to break out one of his Nega Scalespiders--black, four-legged spider-like installments for his Negamobile with heavy armor and intermediate firepower--and attempt to climb the wall himself. His scaler wasn't difficult to maneuver, and had four automatic plasma blasters lining the underside, constantly spinning and firing at a rate of four shots per second. Each turret was quickly neutralized as Nega traversed the cliff.

What was it that Nega wanted so badly? The Philosopher's Stone, of course.

The first Chaos Emerald to be made, and the one that sparked the death of Akita Igniend, the Philosopher's Stone had traveled dimensions countless times. Its power was known as everlast. It could grant an infinite supply of any material object. Most used it for life and gold, but what Dr. Eggman Nega wanted was energy. So had Julian Ceriph Robotnik, who never actually achieved obtaining this one because Sonic and his siblings had known of its power, and had kept it especially safe from him, along with Dragon's Crest, the purple emerald. Nega wanted what Julian had wanted, indeed: an infinite supply of raw energy to keep his robot army, navy, sky fleet, all of that, running forever. But, more importantly, he needed all six Chaos Emeralds present in Mobius to contact the seventh on his homeworld, which was no doubt held by the hedgehog, in order to complete his sky fleet and double-conquer the two dimensions. Maybe he could even reach Earth, once he gained all seven!

But to plan for the future, one must pay attention to the matter at hand. Eggman Nega knew this. He did have an idea of what to do, though...

The negative doctor had been expecting something like the portal closing before the Neorb could arrive with the rest of his fleet, so he had also devised a counteraction. He tapped the button that would initiate a peragrodimensional radio connection with the corrupted data, which worked with an electromagnetic frequency even lower than radio wave Eggman Nega had dubbed a 'Pergio Wave,' for its ability to cross the dimensional boundaries due to its low frequency; the Void simply doesn't realize its presence and unknowingly allows it to pass between the interdimensional borders it otherwise strictly policed.

"Neorb, I have a few orders for you..."

----------------------

Silver was a tad dubious about a hackpad, but he had known for a long time that Cortex, as slow as he was, had learned his limits, and that when he offered a suggestion nowadays, he was usually right.

Said 'hackpad' was a palmtop-like device Cortex had come up with. It had been created after Karma had suggested it to the Gila monster. It worked by using a strip of Neorb's code--which, incidentally, had somehow been obtained by Blaze--to gain access to Neorb's communications center, which would in turn receive any and all of a certain mad scientist's messages to the virus.

The hackpad had been created to track a mysteriously vacant Eggman Nega, who had disappeared since Silver's contact with Sonic's world. After a fireworks display at the Vents, Karma had deduced that Blaze had sensed the dimensional anomaly and didn't enjoy it, so Silver, upon the group's enlightenment of Nega's idleness, decided to omit the adventure, which had involved trading cards, a space station called Dead Line, maple syrup, and Silver deciding that a pink hedgehog with a huge hammer was cute, and simply told their ally that Nega had gone missing. Blaze, incidentally, had shot away from the vents upon that notice, and hadn't been encountered by the anti-Nega team since.

However, Silver was especially skeptical on the hackpad plan because no one--not even the powerful Psi Dragons--could tell where on his planet the negative doctor was. He had been monitoring the device for several weeks now.

The psychokineser was just finishing breakfast when he decided to go check on the hackpad. When he looked at it, though, he gasped in utter shock.

"You are to intercept Sonic the Hedgehog at the Polar Bridge," Eggman Nega's words had appeared on the hackpad screen.

_So he's still a threat,_ Silver thought breathlessly. _And... Sonic? Does that mean the others are still here, too? Like..._ He forcibly cut off his own train of thought and paid attention to the hackpad. More words had appeared, along with a meaningless strip of code. The white hedgehog focused on the words. It was Nega he was after.

"Use the Disarmory. It should provide what we need for now." So the negative doctor was going to attack Sonic with the Nega Disarmory, whatever that was. _Not helpful,_ Silver decided and stared at the screen a little longer.

Code... "No, it's not necessary to eliminate him at the moment. We can deal with him later."... More code... "Amatik, Neorb. Amatik."

Finally, something useful! Karma had been watching Eggman Nega's Amatik program for quite some time. The cobra had uncovered quite a bit: She had revealed that the Amatik program was an upgrade on the Nega Annihilator, a ripoff of the positive Eggman's Egg Annihilator, and that it could hold immense power to rival the Neorb's strength, were it to possess something like the 'Metal Overlord' from Mobius that Blaze had somehow found out existed, and had enough power to be a match for three super forms, whatever those were. _So Nega plans to use Amatik project on Sonic!_ Silver realized. _No time to waste! If I want either world to survive, I've got to go and find Sonic! But... why in hell would he be at Polar Bridge? HOW is he at Polar Bridge? And..._ He finally paid attention to his secret fantasies. _What if the others are here too?_ Silver himself knew that 'the others' really meant 'Amy Rose the relentless lovesick Sonic fangirl hedgehog that I'm actually in love with myself.' It was a long title, but it was everything the psychokineser held to be true about his own situation. _If she could just stop with Sonic..._ Unfortunately for all you Silvamy fans that were no doubt instantly attracted to this story, Silver still doesn't know that Sonic hates Amy chasing him around and screaming for marriage.

----------------------

Eggman Nega's climb had been going fine until he heard a few things.

First was the gliding noise.

Nega was smart, so he knew quite a bit about his family history. His grandfather, Julian C. Robotnik, had overtaken Planet Mobius, but was stopped by a hedgehog not unlilke Sonic, and now revealed to be Sonic's grandfather. When said hedgehog attempted to kill Robotnik, he killed himself instead and locked Robotnik into the timestream. He had been released 50 years later. But the important thing is that Sonic's grandfather attempted to kill Julian over planet Earth, when Dr. Gerald took one of the dying hedgehog's super-form quills and used them to create Shadow, the Ultimate Life Form.

Said Ultimate Life Form had found him.

Second was the unmistakable blast of powerful rockets that Nega himself may have built, but didn't recognize himself. These came from a certain E-series rebel. Those noises drowned out the rhythmic wing-beating.

Team Dark had come for vengeance.

----------------------

"WHADDAYA MEAN, WE GOTTA GO ON WATER?!"

Sonic's negotiations at V'Noi had been successful thanks to Cortex's nationality and testimony. They had envisioned a way back, as well: use the 'Gems of the Sun.' However, as Cortex's father had explained, the Gems of the Sun were in a location that required travel through Hydroknisyar, which Sonic had obviously protested against. The trio had come up with a solution for that, too. Antiphotokinesers, or people that controlled the darkness, had an uncanny ability to teleport at night, due to the lack of moon or stars on the strange world. Sonic and Cortex were to travel to Thric Thriator, the home of the mysterious Antiphotokinesers located on the far side of the Polar Bridge, and request transport to the Gems.

Unfortunately, Roc Enfot, home of the Photokinesers on the near side of the bridge, was an island. It wasn't very far away from the mainland at all, but it was an extremely steep decline of about half a mile down from the nearest cliff face.

"Yeeaahh... didn't we say?" Cortex answered. "Anyway, why do you care?"

Sonic responded simply, "Can you keep a secret?"

"No one better," Cortex honestly replied. _Well, 'cept maybe Blaze,_ he thought to himself, _but no one's supposed to know she exists, so I'm the one._

"Well, I'm hydrophobic."

The Geokineser burst out laughing at this one.

"Hey, hey! I have a good reason!" Sonic protested weakly.

"W-what could b-b-b-eee-BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Cortex broke off into insane laughter.

"It's my porous fluid circulation," Sonic began to explain. The Gila monster bolted up straight and cut his humorous nature dead-short, like they do in those animes. Sonic continued. "In order to sustain supersonic motion, I need to get air through a source other than my mouth. Were I to inhale while moving at such speeds, the air would probably rip my throat apart. As such, I 'breathe' through my pores as well as my nose and mouth. But, trouble is, this process doesn't stop underwater. So, as a result, if I'm immersed for 30 seconds, I drown. Water is my weakness, you could say."

"...Oooohhh..." Cortex realized. "Sorry. I didn't realize your respiratory system behaved in such a manner. Damn, I really am slow..."

"Huh," Sonic muttered.

"I'm assuming salt water is worse?" Cortex questioned from his reaction.

"'Tis. The salt blocks up my pores while the water goes inside. I have to barf it out," Sonic revealed.

"Oh... Well, damn," Cortex decided. "That's a saltwater gulch... Hey, maybe I could--"

Several minutes later, an appropriate stairway made from the ocean floor had been erected. Its builder gazed proudly upon it, slamming his thick tail into the ground.

"...Nice!" Sonic decided. "Off to Roc Enfot!"

The duo were down in a flash.

----------------------

The Polar Bridge was representative of the contrast of Roc Enfot and Thric Thriator. It certainly represented well.

Nearest the former, the bridge was made entirely of milky quartz of exceptional luster; as the sun neared it, it sparkled, creating the paragon of picturesque shine. The dazzling light went in direct contrast to the other half of the bridge, closer to Thric Thriator. It was made of lackluster jet. The rock was a black hole that absorbed all of the light that neared it. Well, not literally, but metaphorically.

As Sonic and Cortex approached the Polar Bridge, they didn't bother to shield their eyes--after all, they'd be across the bridge in a heartbeat.

Before either of them had any sort of chance to think, however, Sonic was repelled by some kind of invisible force, and two thick tentacles that seemed to be made of light wrapped around the startled hedgehog. Cortex, dropping to the arch after being released by a shocked blue blur, squenched his eyes shut as he ran--relatively slowly--across the Polar Bridge. The lizard then got the first look at what the Nega Disarmory was.

_It isn't a fitting name at all, _Cortex quickly decided. All that the Gila monster could see were the tentacles and a vague shape of what seemed to be a glowing popcorn ball.

Deciding to take action against the only thing between the travelling duo and Thric Thriator, Cortex sent up some spikes.

----------------------

As Shadow, Rouge, and E-123Ω appeared behind him, Dr. Eggman Nega instantly gauged that all three of them knew exactly what he was doing, why he was doing it, and what he planned to do with his goal of Philosopher's Stone.

"I'm afraid I didn't have time to arrange a proper introduction," Nega responded to the meddlers, "so I don't have any games for you three. However--" he flicked a switch, and the glowing green bands around the legs of the black quadripedial spider turned crimson, matching Shadow's stripes-- "I do have party favors!"

The negative doctor tapped a button and pulled a lever. Now the three joysticks would work to move not the Scalespider, but the newly revealed missile launchers that had appeared.

A touch-sensetive trajectory plotting screen appeared in front of him. The dark scientist tapped it four times, set all speeds to 100, and set all of the delay times to 60. Instantly, his hands flew to the left and right joysticks on the dashboard as the Scalespider took off.

----------------------

As Shadow charged into the silver box of a room, he noted that the doctor was climbing the wall in an odd, black, quadripedial machine that was blasting four lasers simultaneously every quarter-second. He instantly realized that the dark doctor was after the Chaos Emeralds!

Almost as soon as the Ultimate, Rouge, and Omega entered, Eggman Nega told them, "I'm afraid I didn't have time to arrange a proper introduction, so I don't have any games for you three. However, I do have party favors!"

The green bands around the 'knees' of the robot turned a menacing red, which was, incidentally, a perfect match for Shadow's stripes. The trio silently prepared for combat. (insert music Battle Sonic from Sonic X here if you want)

The Scalespider suddenly leaped from the north wall, which it was attempting to climb, onto the west wall, firing a missile towards Shadow. Immediately after firing, it jumped to the east wall, launching another projectile, this time at Rouge. Then, it jumped west again, but this time, it hovered in the center of all four walls, shooting at Omega. It proceeded to return to its climb up the north wall.

While Shadow and Rouge darted of to either side, Omega simply fired at the missile with his bullets. At first, they just bounced off, but, like the woodpeckers that damaged a space shuttle, the shots started to tear the weapon apart. It quickly exploded.

Shadow actually ran up the west wall, the missile close behind. He then leaped off the wall, shooting off to the east. The missile followed. As the lethal device neared the Ultimate Life Form, he wall-jumped again. Sure enough, the missile couldn't make a sharp enough turn to follow him, and merely blew a hole in the east wall. Shadow smirked across at his comrades triumphantly as he watched Rouge deal with her projectile.

Sure enough, Rouge had managed to lay a Dummy Ring around her missile. After a lengthy-enough chase, the self-propelled grenade exploded.

After Shadow and Rouge regrouped with Omega, however, it was quickly made apparent that Nega had nearly reached the Stone. "Chaos Control!" the golden streak yelled, panicking.

----------------------

Eggman Nega triumphantly reached out to claim the Stone. Infinite energy would be his after just a last one second...!

Unfortunately for the dark doctor, an incredible emerald flash exploded in front of him--and just as he was about to claim the stone!

"Never mess with the Ultimate on his home ground," Shadow warned darkly as he recalled a similar instance on the Mobian space station Dead Line and joining Knuckles as Super Shadow in shoving the Ark into Mobian orbit. He quickly snatched up the red Chaos Emerald that Nega had coveted, and yelled, "Chaos Control!"

Despite the power of the Chaos Inferno, however, the negative scientist was still in his Negamobile, completely unharmed!

"It can wait, Shadow, my boy," Nega consoled mockingly as he flew away. "I have other queries... and you know I'll succeed!"

"I know that you won't, Eggman Nega," Rouge bit back.

"And how, milady, is that?" Eggman Nega quoted himself as he became nothing but a speck in the Mobian atmosphere.

As the trio stared after him, Rouge commented, "That Negamobile really is stronger than it looks."

"You'd better believe it," Shadow confirmed angrily.

-------------------------------------------------------------

A/N: I've reached 10,000 words! I've reached 11,000 words! I've reached 12,000 words! 12,000 WORDS, PEOPLE! 12,000! ... I know it isn't great. So, that's Light Keeper. Next is Discord Empire, and Sonic meets Silver at last! Plus, Team Dark and Sonic's siblings will start to track down Eggman Nega. Just a reminder: TELL ME IMMEDIATELY if you have received any reviews from my account OR any anonymous reviews from 'Supreme Gamesmaster Yddisac' or 'WormholeAzuxes.' Charsaln, ican seres.


	6. Chapter 6: Discord Empire

Chapter 6: Discord Empire

A/N: Menacing title, isn't it? Anywho, this is an important chapter. We get to see lots more of Shadow, Rouge, Omega, Tails, Sonia, & Manic as they struggle to stop Eggman Nega from obtaining the six--soon to be five--Chaos Emeralds on Mobius. Plus, more Silvamy and some Shadouge. And there's a big battle in this chapter, making it my longest yet. So, fans'll like this one. Neorb, BTW, is voiced by Russ Wheeler.

A/N: OMG, I'M ALIVE!! I haven't updated Beyond in over a year, which makes me feel like an idiot. Seriously, I'm on a slower timetable than nagami cabasa. Mostly because my creative energy is going into my novel. But I could make millions of excuses, and only one thing would satisfy you: this chapter.

•••••••••••••••••••••••

At GUN Headquarters...

"What is that?" Commander Kane said to himself, grumbling in confusion. The entire GUN facility at Tuscany was having a hard time figuring that out. "That" was the presence of Eggman Nega's fleet orbiting the planet, but of course, they didn't know the dark doctor even existed. They had only seen his combat robots, through a security camera, and even then something everyone was certain was Shadow the Hedgehog had thundered through, destroying the robots--and the camera.

"Incoming message, sir," a soldier suddenly piped up. He had a grizzled brown beard, a tough-set jaw, and eyes that reflected determination, though what that determination was set to do, it was uncertain. "From our base in Odessa, sir."

"Send it in, Lieutenant Shawd," Kane said calmly. "Let's see what they have to say--maybe some intel on a certain phenomenon," he added darkly, but still not losing his cool.

"Yes, sir," Shawd agreed obediently, and went over to a dashboard on the northeast side of the room. He tapped a couple of buttons, and then slammed down one more, allowing the message to pass through.

Though Commander Kane was excellent at keeping calm in a crisis, the base at Ukraine was in an absolute uproar. From the looks of the transmission, someone had sent down a volatile energy bomb and blown the place half up, leaving the other half to mill about in chaos, wondering what had sent down the horrific explosive.

The Odessa base's leader, however, knew exactly who had sent down the bomb. In fact, that was the point of his transmission.

"Eggman Nega!" he rasped in his guttural voice through the camera. "We just got an intel report from one of our spies, and--" He was cut off by static.

The bat, no doubt, the GUN Commander thought in dry amusement for a moment, before his comrade appeared again.

"Do you read now?" he asked desperately.

"I read," Kane confirmed with unnerving calm.

"The leader of those weird Eggman robots a while ago! He's from through the wormhole, and somehow, he managed to artificially close it!"

"So, really, we don't have to do anything about it," Kane started, relieved.

"What are you saying?!" the other man was saying incredulously.

"Well, Torom," Kane explained, "whenever something with 'Eggman' in its name pops up, that blue hedgehog always has things cleaned up before we can even begin to intervene.

"But that's what I tried to tell you!" Torom was now terrified, as the true horror of the situation was beginning to unfold. "Sonic hasn't been sighted ever since he disappeared through a Stage generator!"

"Like the one on Huge Crisis?" Even Kane couldn't stand to imagine the full force of an Eggman fleet without people taking it out from the inside, with a human or an anthro. Actually, that was preferably anthro, due to their abilities to absorb the invincibility powers of Rings.

"Exactly, but the tear was apparently huge!" Torom positively yelled in horror. "Our spy states that he reopened the wormhole and used up its last power cell, meaning that our greatest hero is trapped beyond the Wormhole!"

"...All forces to arms," Kane finally decided. "Lieutenant Shawd--come with me."

"Any sign of 'em?" Manic requested of Shadow and Rouge, who had been scouring Angel Island for signs of Eggman Nega's occupation. There were three Chaos Emeralds on the island, and therefore, the strike team had been worried about a takeover of the Emerald shrine. Though it'd take a while before Knuckles finally cracked, it wasn't beyond Nega's resources, as he had all of the time in the world.

Shadow's expression turned grim. "Yep," he warned the two hedgehogs, the bat, and the robot. "Looks like he was expecting us. It's like he's got his whole robot army up here, and even we can't take 'em all out."

"Well, at least I know where to get reinforcements," Rouge reassured them as she tapped the front of her left boot. "GUN'll be up here in no time."

"Let's just hope they can spare the resources," Shadow murmured.

"And know the stakes," Sonia finished for all of them. They stood in silence for a while.

"Well, we'd better find some sort of shelter," Manic finally broke the stillness. "If we just stay here until reinforcements arrive, then Nega's bots will find us too soon."

Murmuring in general agreement, the troop set off to the south.

The deep violet eyes could have been aiming lasers as the echidna watched the oncoming army from the bluff. His ever-vigilant eye had detected the intrusion mere seconds prior. They were moving at a steady pace; theyÕd have reached the shrine by nightfall.

Suddenly, there was the sound of a robot landing on the ground behind him. Knuckles whirled around and nearly aimed a punch, but was able to stop himself in time; it was actually four allied mechs.

"WE SEEK TO ASSIST YOU," E102 Gamma buzzed in his traditional choppy voice. Knuckles grinned at him. HeÕd heard Tails had attempted to repair him along with Emerl, but heÕd never heard the results. Clearly, he had been successful on both accounts.

"comstyleKnuckles," Emerl recited. "Ready for combat."

"We've seen Shadow and his teammates further southwest on the island," Neo Metal Sonic said flatly. "Several G.U.N. dropships also seem to be approaching. However, we donÕt expect assistance until nightfall."

"We should be able to hold out," Knuckles said grimly. "When are they getting here?"

"ETA: 97 mins," E123 Omega rattled off.

"We should have time to prepare, then." The echidna was frankly relieved. "We should even have time to..."

•••••••••••••••••••••••

The ranks approached.

Frankly, Nega was proud he'd been able to assemble such a force. Constructing a full brigade of robotic soldiers was, if not particularly difficult, an impressive feat. Certainly, the echidna had put up impressive resistance before, but 7,616 robots would absolutely overwhelm him.

He stepped into the Negamobile, smiling. He'd been looking forward to giving this speech for a long time. As his soldiers surrounded the shrine, lances, blasters, and bomb slots aimed, Knuckles stood defiantly, arms crossed, apparently looking to fight. And here he'd thought he was facing an intelligent foe.

"Knuckles Echidna," Nega began. "You have defied me for a full three hundred sixty-five days, and longer. But your time of resistance has come short. I would tell you why, but it would be an insult to your ability to resist me.

"You know what I want, and what I would do to get it. There are seven and a half thousand robotic soldiers on this island, all aiming their weapons at you. Your choice is whether to surrender the remaining Chaos Emeralds to me, or to fall in battle against me. I would not hesitate to burn this island to the ground to get the emeralds.

"The choice is yours. The island, or the emeralds. Which will you save?"

Knuckles didn't even begin to ponder his speech. "I can save both," he argued, "because I've been taking on bots just like these longer than I can remember, and Angel Island doesn't exactly like being attacked. Bring it on!" And with that, he leapt down, plunging his fist into the ground, letting a storm of fireballs consume the robots around him. At the same time, suddenly, three massive balls of energy shot out of the shrine, knocking over robots like bowling pins. An avalanche of rocks began to cascade upon the enemy as the three mechs on Knuckles's side joined the fray. Bot after bot fell, whether to the rocks or to the fighters. But Nega had a defense.

"You were warned," he murmured. "Release the elite soldiers!"

He himself primed his flamethrower and fired.

The island was on fire.

•••••••••••••••••••••••

Pain...

Pain was coming...

Pain was acting on it...

Pain was afflicting its friend...

I must cease that pain.

I'm trapped. Minor detail. Release myself.

"No need... the time is right..."

Excellent. Let's put them in their place.

"...Let's."

•••••••••••••••••••••••

A surge of water burst out of the shrine. That was bad. It nullified his most important bargaininig point -- the threat of burning the isle.

But Knuckles hadn't been lying when he'd claimed the island's defenses would save it. It was evident what was going on once the water formed into a vaguely humanoid shape and started short-circuiting his robots. Chaos, the water god, had been trapped in the Master Emerald after all. His release could only mean imminent obliteration of his plan... or could it be better?

"Artillery," he commanded. "Concentrate sights on dihydrogen monoxide compounds, don't fire. Evasive action upon disturbment, don't remove sights." Nega smiled to himself: he could almost see, almost feel, the great god Chaos himself... evaporating.

•••••••••••••••••••••••

Ordinarily, he would have prefered an SMG, but Shadow had to admit, the lances were rather amusing. Literally backstabbing inattentive soldiers and throwing them at others to kill them would have been horrifyingly barbaric if they were alive, but the dark hedgehog would have been surprised if the robots even noticed they were scrap metal.

Still, it was time to get serious. The robots were completely surrounding him, and though his time manipulation made it pathetically simple to dodge their bullets, the fact remained that if he got too careless, death would be the result. And Nega knew what he was doing as far as air-to-ground warfare was concerned; he'd lost rings to bombs on multiple occasions during this fight alone.

GUN ships loomed on the horizon. It'd be a long tommorow, Shadow, thought, but at least he'd live to see it.

•••••••••••••••••••••••

A/N: Well, that's it. You folks wait a year for a chapter, and I give you... a cliffhanger. I promise other updates will be more regular. Really. Well, more regular than once a year, anyway. If you're reading this, here's a cookie. Or eighty-one.


	7. Chapter 7: Deep Shrine

A/N: So, do you remember me at all? I gave you a oneshot to warm up. So, here's Deep Shrine, where we really start getting interesting as Sonic, Cortex, Silver, and two yet-unnamed others return to Earth — just in time for the outcome of Eggman Nega's battle on Angel Island...

•••••••••••••••••••••••

Chapter 7: Deep Shrine Zone

"That was anticlimactic," Sonic observed drily.

The Nega Disarmory had simply shattered on being struck by the Gila monster's makeshift Dug Haut. The raw power of the Disarmory was apparently limited to offense; glass shards were scattered over the brilliantly glowing Roc Enfot side of the Polar Bridge. Brilliant rainbows were therefore arcing across the skies of the city of light and... stopping abruptly the instant the dull, apparently light-negating Thric Thriator side was struck.

"The land of darkness lies ahead," Cortex shrugged, stretching and stepping onto the bridge's other side. He promptly recoiled. "Ow, damnit!" he muttered, lifting his foot tenderly. "The thing's damn hot... oh, right. Darkness absorbs heat."

"I can get you over," Silver suggested, levitating nearby. Cortex acquiesced and allowed himself to be carried telekinetically to Sonic's side of the bridge, where the hedgehog in question was staring at the white one, completely dumbfounded.

Cortex nodded in gratitude. "Thanks for that. ...what's up, Sonic?"

"I just came out of nowhere," Silver explained delicately, landing in front of the blue hedgehog, "like some kind of deus ex machina, but too late. Not normal. 'Sides, we've met."

"...so?"

Sonic was eerily silent. Why was his presence so boggling to the other hedgehog? _No matter for now... I'll just give him a little time._ In the meantime, he spoke up again.

"He's from another dimension," he provided. Cortex smashed himself in the face.

"Duh," the lizard muttered as he recovered. "You'd think he'd recover a little quicker than that," he added, glancing at Sonic uneasily. The supersonic hedgehog, accustomed to taking surprises in stride at 789 miles per hour, was still virtually comatose.

There was a legitimate reason for this. _Gems of the Sun... Silver is here? He never said he wasn't... And he used..._

_...the Sol Emeralds to cross to our worlds. Which means I'll be home the second I reach Blaze. Not a bad compromise._

In an instant, the trio were rocketing like cannonballs towards the center of the land of shadows.

•••••••••••••••••••••••

"In modern English but one quatrain fair," Cortex read aloud, "to our great Dark Lord Edius Korrome, read for his powers. That shall be your fare, whether to conceal or take you home."

"No problem," Sonic muttered.

•••••••••••••••••••••••

"To our great Dark Lord Edius Korrome:

My quest is not for me to undertake

Though with my heart's desire lies the home

Of seven jewels, with two worlds here at stake."

"I didn't tell him anything except that they existed!" Cortex protested as Sonic smirked devilishly at Edius Korrome's robed figure. "I swear, he shouldn't have any idea — "

"D'you reckon he met Karma, too?" Silver whispered conspiratorially while Edius Korrome chanted. "He knows what they are, he probably knows Blaze is off duty — "

"I wouldn't be surprised," Cortex murmured. "And that's why she was so ticked, 'cuz we'd all gone and she hadn't..."

Isn't it amazing how wonderfully they can misinterpret things?

•••••••••••••••••••••••

Thunderclouds loomed on the horizon even as Neorb's robots secured their base. Karma alone was powerless to resist the robots, true. But Nega's orders had been to kill the actual guardian as she returned, and Neorb was, if nothing else, obedient.

A glance at the base told one: "man, is it something else." Basically the entire cliff had been turned into a giant turret. Miniature batteries could fire individually or connect to a massive satellite in the very front; the latter weapon was designed to all but eradicate Blaze Persiva Igniend. Quite frankly, she stood no chance to survive.

As for the rainclouds... certainly, they were approaching quickly, but a massive complex of lightningrods ahead of it would intercept any thunder. Nega's robots were all thoroughly waterproof as well. There was no danger.

haygaybabtuyhnctsmythhh1/haygaybabtuyhnctsmythhh

"How are you, gentlemen? All your base are belong to us. You have no chance to survive. Make your time. Ha. Ha. Ha."

Even as the audio clip finished, the glowing green Neorb was struck by lightning.

Sonic the Hedgehog had arrived, and he came with unstoppable, bullet-speed fury.

•••••••••••••••••••••••

To the untrained eye, Eggman Nega's campaign against Angel Island was going disastrously.

GUN had arrived, along with Shadow the Hedgehog and his entourage, and — of all the outrages — Ivo Robotnik and his fleet. Once Chaos had started evaporating, the entire group had rallied to the water god's defense and begun a metaphorical massacre of the dark doctor's robot troops. The island was just being cleaned up of the last pieces of scrap metal. Hardly a victory to anyone sane.

At least, it didn't seem that way... until one considered the four Chaos Emeralds currently installed in the Nega Scalespider... which was on the Space Colony ARK.

AMATIK was about to begin.

•••••••••••••••••••••••

The world around Sonic was roughly the same color as his quills once he entered the Paganar Cliffs. Traps and robots alike were left to either smolder of marvel at how their targets could move at the same speed as their projectiles.

Sonic noted a large trapdoor ahead of him. To the untrained eye it seemed an ordinary part of the ground, but the hedgehog had years of experience. At his pace, he could sense the weakness of the ground even before he saw it. Leaping into the air, he tried using a homing attack on an aerial robot ahead of him before it noted what was happening. While the attack was ineffectual against the energy shield it deployed, he was able to leap off it before it attacked, seizing the barrel of a cannon as he did so and backflipping onto solid ground before hurtling onward.

He was then impeded by some very long laser beams stretching through both the ceiling and floor. Suddenly recalling with painful clarity his high-altitude deathtrap Nega had engineered during their first encounter, he guessed the lasers would have been his penalty had he suffered the trapdoor as well.

If that were true...

"Chaos Control!" he muttered, praying his gambit would work. The warp was miniscule — not a robot army or living being, just a pair of shoes — and he was, unless he was somehow mistaken, in very close proximity to the Sol Emeralds. The Light Shoes were on his feet in moments.

The cobalt wonder leaped into the air and turned the shoes sideways as they contacted the lasers. He was now grinding them down. Suddenly, a terrible explosion reached Sonic's ears: the sound of a bullet firing. He leaped into the air to dodge it, landing on the same laser on which he had ground.

Now a queer flying robot soared onto the laser ahead of him. The blue blur would have attacked had the robot not been made mostly of spikes. He slid onto the adjacent laser.

Even as he passed, the robot's spikes shot out of it! Sonic couldn't twist out of the way in time; his remaining Rings dropped into a fathomless abyss below. Now he was faced with a horrendous, life-or-death decision with no two clear choices. Could he try jump dashing to a nearby wall repeatedly?

No, that was out. The robot would fire its spikes again, impaling Sonic and killing him.

What of triangle-jumping?

That was out. Sonic glanced aside and learned that there was no wall anyway.

The hedgehog's mind raced. His own world was almost literally right around the corner —

But what options did he have? An ordinary homing attack?

...actually, there was something in that. The robot had just launched its spikes. Who was there to say it had regrown them already? If it hadn't, of course, he'd be speared. But what other options did he have anyway?

Nothing came.

Sonic curled in a ball, hit epsilon grade, and fired.

•••••••••••••••••••••••

Do I even need to tell you he survived?

•••••••••••••••••••••••

A laser suddenly fired across Sonic's pathway. This laser was massive; there was no time for the hedgehog to jump over it. Frowning, he postulated a thesis and leaped at it, continuing to grind along the new rail. As he'd predicted, the old laser dissipated as the new one sapped its energy.

Suddenly, the charge of energy going through the Light Shoes began to weaken. This rail was also failing — and, worse, there was no alternative rail. However, Sonic did note that one section of the abyss looked rather like a wall.

One jump-dash — and _BANG_. — later, and Sonic was kneeling in a terrifyingly familiar room, in front of a terrifyingly familiar guardian.

•••••••••••••••••••••••

Karma, furious and desperate, spat acid at one of the invaders. She held up an arm as the mechanical thief began to spark and melt. To avoid the molten metal from touching her, she leaped away from the enemy, landing on another robot a bit farther from its query.

It was small wonder the guardianship required a psychic with a life of training. Nega's robots were relentless and ubiquitous, closing in on all sides with an impassive, emotionless drive to claim the Emeralds.

Aaaand... now there was an intruder with much less cybernetic inclinations.

As well as a good deal more speed. Possibly 750 miles per hour more speed.

Great.

•••••••••••••••••••••••

There were no longer robots on the faces of the Paganar Cliffs. Most of the laser batteries were exploding as they melted, the plasma within them taking advantage of the destruction.

The cliff face was also on fire.

Blaze Persiva Igniend allowed her own flames to restore her strength, but only as she tore through the inferno towards the entrance to her shrine. She knew full well that, passionately enraged though she was, she would reveal only the faintest of lights were she to wipe away the copious amounts of makeup applied to her face. With her dignity and her life on the line, she was not about to enter the cliffs at anything less than full power.

Not that she was worried about anythong other than impressing Sonic. The cannon was titanic, unwieldly, and now at only about half power. The robots could receive no orders from Neorb, whom she'd found cleaved in two smoldering halves on her way up. Any automated robots wouldn't be much stronger than the Nega Pawn, which she was sure she'd destroyed several times in her sleep.

Still, her obsession with the hedgehog was... less than healthy at best. Hopefully, by stimulating this obsession, she could decipher its origins. Possibly deconstruct it. On the other hand, even if she couldn't, the hunger would be satiated, at least temporarily.

Losing her dignity and deflating her ego weren't terrifically high on her list of priorities at the moment she was about to ruin her own impression of her only friend in hopes of owning her own mind again.

Grand entrance time.

_BANG_.

•••••••••••••••••••••••

Silver and Cortex, psychokinetically clinging to Sonic and praying to keep up, were utterly dumbfounded by that sound.

"Wwwwwwhhhhhhaaaaaatttttt wwwwwwaaaaaassssss tttttthhhhhhaaaaaatttttt??????" the lizard demanded.

"Blaze, I think!" the leader roared, attempting to make himself heard over the din. "But would she be back already?!"

"Iiiiii gggggguuuuuueeeeeessssssssssss!!!!!!" Cortex replied matter-of-factly, if still unadjusted to racing jetliners.

"What on Parax for?!" Silver bellowed.

"Nnnnnnoooooo iiiiiiddddddeeeeeeaaaaaa!!!!!!"

"Then I guess we have to find out..." Now the psychokineser was murmuring to himself, though the clamor was beginning to die off.

•••••••••••••••••••••••

One flash of light later, and five impossibly powerful knights stood in the main control room of the Egg Fleet battleship O.C.E.A.N.

"Wha—" Eggman was... a bit startled. "Where'd you come from?!" he demanded of the familiar faces.

"Parax," Sonic replied dismissively. "What's Nega doing here?"

"Booting up something big," the good doctor said grimly.

"AMATIK!" Silver realized. "He has it here..."

"Wait, what?" The fastest was confused.

Not the slowest. "One of Nega's ultimate weapons," Cortex explained darkly. "A take-off of the Annihilator, but stronger. It's supposed to be immune to any impact, even a Chaos-powered one."

"Nega has acquired five of the Chaos Emeralds," Eggman briefed the group.

"It'll be seven soon," the dark doctor's voice rang out ominously.

The party scattered as the Nega Scalespider burst through the window of O.C.E.A.N, refusing to land. It was surrounded by a jade-and-gold aura that streaked after it as it flew, reminiscent of Shadow's telltale blur.

"Chaos Control," Eggman Nega snarled tauntingly, smirking as he jammed a button on the Scalespider's console. The team's attention was diverted to a flash of green light in the back of the Scalespider. The Ultimate Life Form was bound in glowing cyan wires against the exoskeleton's exhaust port, apparently unconscious.

"Holy..." Sonic murmured, stunned. "How'd he get Shadow?"

"How'd he get your Chaos Emerald?" the cobra pointed out. Indeed, Nega was juggling the green and white Chaos Emeralds, smirking demonically.

"He's making Shadow use Chaos Control for him!" Silver realized as Karma introduced herself. "But if he could still use Chaos Control..."

"He might get the power back any second," Nega agreed, catching the emeralds properly. "So I suppose we'd better dispose of him while we have the chance." The gold in the Scalespider's aura was replaced by white as Shadow the Hedgehog was ejected into space.

•••••••••••••••••••••••

Or so Nega would like to believe.

The main control room in O.C.E.A.N is situated in the very center of the craft. A long series of metal panes surrounded the control room. Nega knew this well; he'd had to burn his way through them with his Scalespider's lasers. The "windows" of the control room were viewscreens fed by sensors on the outside of O.C.E.A.N.

What Nega didn't know was that the infantry command room and starship command room were two different things. He'd fired Shadow in the direction of the infantry control room, towards the ship's exhaust ports. Ordinarily, this wouldn't have been a problem.

However, the warriors from Angel Island were currently conferencing in the infantry command center. Among them were four robots, two hedgehogs used to living with Sonic, and a spy with a lifetime of training.

Still, Shadow was moving at bullet speed. His only shields were wires, but these wires wouldn't be easily disarmed. None of them expected his arrival... but Rouge was able to act on it.

Leaping into the air, she grazed her toe along the Ultimate Lifeform's side, slicing every wire she came across. This was a very good move, as it turned out. Naturally, Shadow was ringless if he was captured. Thus, the pain from being grazed by Rouge's razor-sharp boots was enough to a waken him. With the wires weakened, he was able to spring back into a series of jump dashes. Rouge seized his leg; the others followed below mach.

Unfortunately, the only words Shadow heard of the dark doctor were:

"Chaos Control!"

•••••••••••••••••••••••

A/N: Next up is the final boss of the physical realm, AMATIK. Don't forget Sonic's attacking Neorb, though. The epilogue and I will thank you. Oh, and don't forget to review, or I'll just stop again.


End file.
